disproportion

plural disproportions

1. countableuncountableThe state of being out of proportion; an abnormal or improper ratio; an imbalance.

   the disproportion of the length of a building to its height

   2 more examples

   […] a handsome creature, remarkably so, with features so symmetrical […] that a micrometer gauge could scarcely find a disproportion in her smooth and broad mahogany-coloured face.

   1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 208

   Then we, the social outsiders, turn around and dictate how men shall treat women (seldom, if ever, how women shall treat men; power in men's rather than women's hands being the excuse offered for this lop-sided arrangement), and how whites shall treat blacks (the same disproportion exists here too).

   1978 December 9, Nancy Walker, “Sexism and Racism at GCN?”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 10

2. countableuncountableLack of suitableness, adequacy, or due proportion to an end or use; unsuitableness.

   the disproportion of strength or means to an object

present singular third person disproportions · participle present disproportioning · participle past disproportioned · past disproportioned

1. transitiveTo make unsuitable in quantity, form, or fitness; to violate symmetry in; to mismatch.

   To shape my legs of an unequal size; / To disproportion me in every part.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   1 more example

   a degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the extent of its territory

   1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell, →OCLC